WikiSail:Language policy

Multi-Lingual Policy

The aim of this website is to provide usefull information the most sailors.
In order to reach this objective the information has to be provided in as many languages as possible.

English is the main reference language, and all root pages should be named and written in English.

Other languages should be placed in an appropriately named sub-page of the English version. E.g. the French version of Help:Contents should be at Help:Contents/fr (not Help:Sommaire, Aide:Sommaire or Help:Sommaire/fr).

Language sub-pages should be named using the appropriate language code for that language (see below).

Sub-pages should only be used for translations into other languages, not for English content (e.g. you shouldn't use Table editing/example - use Table editing example or Example of table editing instead).

If an international version of a page exists but an English version does not, then please create a stub article for the English version as this aids navigation.

All pages should be tagged with the {{Languages}} template, which automatically creates links to all available translations.

Language codes

Throughout MediaWiki.org you should use the language codes specified by the MediaWiki software when creating language-specific content (see Names.php for the full and up-to-date list).

Please also bear the following in mind:

If the language code is not found in Names.php then we should not host help pages in that language.

If you want to add a language that is not present, first get it added to the software (by making a request at Bugzilla) and only add pages here once the changes have been accepted.

If MediaWiki uses the 'incorrect' code for a language then you should also (for consistency) use that incorrect code here. If you think a code is incorrect you should discuss it on Bugzilla, and if this results in it being changed we will move the pages to match.

Note that some language codes in Names.php are now deprecated (e.g. zh-yue has been replaced with yue). In these cases only the most recent code should be used.